If you’re a female athlete like me, you know the drill when it comes to wanting people to take you seriously (For everyone else: people tend to not take us seriously). That’s why, when the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the World Cup this summer, I was over the moon about the amount of… Continue Reading →
A sorority girl’s take on the Alpha Phi recruitment video
If you follow women in the media— and, honestly, even if you don’t — you’ve probably seen the recruitment video members of Alpha Phi at the University of Alabama released in August 2015. The video, which quickly went viral and was taken down due to backlash, featured dozens of Barbie-esque women gallivanting through their campus, promising the viewers they, too,… Continue Reading →
Adventures in feminist wedding planning
I’m getting married, and I want to share with you just some of the ways that wedding planning has highlighted pesky gender expectations and body image pressures. We always said we’d never do it. “What would it add to our relationship?” we thought. Then one night, on a romantic whim (he was gone to Italy… Continue Reading →
Does #ThighReading help or hurt body-positivity?
Thanks to the advent of social media, we live in a culture where it’s easier than ever to share parts of our lives with others. That’s great news for the body-positive movement, which has started using the Twitter hashtag #ThighReading as a way to celebrate realistic, unaltered depictions of women’s bodies. This trend began after a Twitter user… Continue Reading →
Steps forward: From Gilmore Girls to Orange is the New Black
Advocating for more realistic portrayals of female characters in the media has been a major part of the third wave of feminism. But in all of our work and efforts, have we been making any strides? Is there anything we can point to and say, “This, my friends, is headed in the right direction”? When Gilmore… Continue Reading →
Why I say yes to the dress
What do you do if you find yourself loving a TV show that promotes values you don’t support? Such is the case for me with TLC’s Say Yes to the Dress. The gist of the show is women come to Kleinfeld Bridal in New York City with a variety of friends and relatives (their “entourage”)… Continue Reading →
Fury Road? More Like Furiosa Road!
I went to the movies over Memorial Day, and now all I can think about is Mad Max, Mad Max, MAD MAX! That is, of course, only the title of the movie. Because if I was going to jump up and down excitedly screaming the name of the main character, I would be saying, “FURIOSA!”… Continue Reading →
Just “Bad Blood,” or bad body image?
[media url=”youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo/A&W=415″] Nude bodices, come-hither poses, and full body scans of a barely clothed body: Taylor Swift’s latest video, “Bad Blood,” is the culmination of her sexual evolution, which we began to see with the release of her album 1989 in 2014. Sexual, or at least sensual, lyrics trickle through the album (“his hands are… Continue Reading →
Why I love Amy Schumer’s new music video, “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup”
The other morning, while eating my breakfast, I found this: comedienne Amy Schumer’s new music video, “Girl, You Don’t Need Makeup.” I watched it thinking it would be a silly remake of some song. I was wrong. It is so much more. I have since sent this to all of my best girl friends. I… Continue Reading →